


Don't Be

by Ladycat



Series: Married [11]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Schmoop, always a girl Rodney
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-13
Updated: 2014-02-13
Packaged: 2018-01-12 06:26:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1182945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladycat/pseuds/Ladycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Actually, I believe I control what happens here and not you. I am his wife and legal proxy and you will be releasing him no later than tomorrow, 9 am."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Be

The hospital was one of her least favorite places to be. It smelled wrong, antiseptic only just barely cutting through the cloying scent of injury and death and human waste that no amount of scrubbing could ever really remove. It'd seeped into the walls, by now, holding onto the pain and misery of scent the way it held in sound.

She sat very, very still in her chair. Her hands were clasped in front of her, the very model of a perfect military wife.

A doctor was chirping at her. Meredith didn't like female doctors who dealt with patients. The researchers were top notch, even if they were in a field as imprecise as medicine, and the administrators all had that steely-eyed look that she herself sometimes caught in the mirror. The nurses were okay, too.

The doctors who actually held hands and stitched wounds and generally tried so hard to make her feel better about this, to be reassuring and kind -- it made her drive her teeth into her lower lip until it bled.

That, surprisingly, seeped through to the idiotic woman who was about ten seconds from committing the ultimate sin and put her hand on Mer's shoulder. The doctor stared, cheerful expression fading into something more wary, and the hovering hand dropped back to her side. "He'll be okay."

"Of course he will," Meredith snarled back. He would, because as soon as they were out of this death trap she was bringing him to the nice, safe, base doctors who knew better than to risk her wrath by allowing her husband to die.

"This is a very routine procedure," the doctor added with a shrill note of insistence.

Meredith took a deep, steadying breath. She found it useful before launching into her more scathing dressing downs.

And just as quickly the air rushed out of her, because she'd glanced back at the bed (the way she was every two or three seconds, without fail; it was giving her a headache) and saw a tiny indentation around John's mouth where it'd been perfectly smooth, if bristly, before.

"Oh, and I'm sure this is amusing to you."

The doctor, who had certainly recognized the signs of being chewed out, blinked. "Um, Doctor McKay? Are you... feeling okay?"

"I'm not hearing voices, god. Where did you get your medical degree, from a cracker jack box?" Stomping over to the bed, Mer laid her hand very carefully (delicately, the way she handled wires too thin to really be seen) over John's wrist. His pulse beat strongly, the skin warm and familiar against her fingers.

His hand twitched, twisting slightly. "Mer," he whined. It came out more like muuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, but she was familiar with the inarticulate grumbles of her husband through torturous morning experience.

"I'm here," she murmured, and if her voice was as soft as her touch upon his hand, well, there was only the idiot doctor to overhear. "You're okay. We're at the hospital and you're okay. You just -- " Her voice broke, wavering. She had to stop and blink tears out of her eyes before she could look back.

John's eyes were open. Just a sliver, a hint of green-touched brown that tried vainly to focus on her. "Don't," he whispered.

Don't be scared. Meredith took her husband's hand and clutched it to her chest like something out of a romance novel and didn't care. "Your appendix burst," she said, throat too tight to do more than whisper. "You had to be airlifted to the hospital and you had surgery."

John's fingers tightened against her own for a second. "When's the Daedelus back?"

That prompted a laugh from her, watery and a little hysterical, but a laugh nonetheless. "Tomorrow. You're being discharged then."

"Um, actually," the doctor piped up.

"Actually, I believe I control what happens here and not you. I am his wife and legal proxy and you will be releasing him no later than tomorrow, 9 am."

When the Daedelus would be in transporter range. She hadn't even had to beg or berate, which honestly astonished her. She had just asked, voice completely unfamiliar to her ringing ears, and General Landry hadn't given her any of the bullshit excuses he usually offered her before even hearing what she'd asked for.

Instead he'd become very quiet and said, "Of course, Doctor McKay. We'll call you as soon as arrangements are made."

It had been very disconcerting, not that she'd paid that much attention at the time. Because John had still been asleep, then, pale underneath the white hospital blanket and breathing so slightly that Mer had to rest her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat just to make sure it was still there.

"'M okay," John whispered. His palm exerted pressure the way a humming bird's wing might, but Mer let her wrist turn, their fingers lacing together. "I'm okay," he said again, a little stronger.

"Of course you are," Mer said, wiping her cheeks. "Don't you dare do this to me again!"

John abruptly closed his mouth, eyes opening all the way. He'd about to say something, probably stupid like sorry I ruined the honeymoon or, or she didn't even know, just that it was John so it'd be idiotic and self-sacrificing and she just didn't want to hear it.

Instead, he smiled at her as much as his drug-heavy lips could and said, "Only got one appendix."

"Oh my god, I hate you so much!"

John just smiled, looking content as Mer started berating him. And if he occasionally wiped away a tear that dripped down too far, well. He wouldn't tell anyone at all.


End file.
